2013-W Proof Platinum Eagle Sales Debut at 2,139

Sales kicked off last Thursday, July 18, for 2013-W Proof American Platinum Eagles. Newly released figures from the United States Mint show collectors ordered 2,139 by Sunday.

That is the weakest start for the series of 99.95% pure platinum coins. Collectors have commented favorably on this year’s design (read the news article about its release), but swinging precious metals prices has inserted at least a touch of buying caution.

This year the one-ounce Platinum Eagle opened at $1,800. Last Wednesday the price bumped up $50 from what it could have been when the average for platinum moved higher to between $1,400.00 and $1,449.99 an ounce. Before then, there had been downward pressure. The price of the Platinum Eagle will not change this week with platinum firmly within the same price-setting range. And with the coin’s 15,000 mintage limit, there is no rush to buy. Collectors can patiently wait to see how platinum plays out.

Here’s a breakdown of starting sales for the platinum coins since 2009:

2009-2013 Proof Platinum Eagle Sales Debut

Year of Issue

Debut Price

Debut Sales Period

Debut Sales

Sales / Mintages

2013 Proof Platinum Eagle

$1,800

July 18 – 21

2,139

2,139 /15,000

2012 Proof Platinum Eagle

$1,692

Aug 9 – 13

2,461

9,661 / 15,000

2011 Proof Platinum Eagle

$2,092

May 26 – 29

6,786

14,760 / 15,000

2010 Proof Platinum Eagle

$1,892

Aug 12 – 15

8,268

10,000 / 10,000

2009 Proof Platinum Eagle

$1,792

Dec 3 – 6

7,207

8,000 / 8,000

2013-W Proof American Platinum Eagle Coin

The 2013-W Proof American Platinum Eagle is fifth in the six-year "Preamble Series." Its reverse design features the theme "To Promote General Welfare."

It may be ordered from the U.S. Mint’s online page or by calling 1-800-872-6468.

Prices for Numismatic Gold Coins May Rise

In other coin news, there is a chance that the U.S. Mint on Wednesday will raise prices on its range of numismatic gold coins. Current prices are based on an average of gold that is within $1,250 and $1,299.99 an ounce. London fixings on Wednesday must still be considered but the average is sitting at $1,305.72 an ounce.

If Wednesday’s AM Fix for gold is above $1,254.20 and the PM Fix is at or above $1,300 an ounce, then the U.S. Mint will increase gold coin prices by $50 for every ounce of gold content. When pricing adjustments are needed, the Mint tends to carry out them at around noon ET.

The real issue is that the Mint will fail miserably in their attempt to sell 15,000 of these; WHEN will they realize that if they want success with their coins they MUST allow a 2ndary market of real value to be present with all their products? SERIOUSLY.

When they did only 8,000 it sold out in a week ( a long sell out time), then they got greedy and upped it to 10,000, took 3 weeks to sell out, and resale values were lower.
Then they became even greedier and upped it to 15,000 and for the 3rd year in a row, and is most miserable fashion they WILL FAIL to sell out – final numbers will likely be under 8,000 no matter what platinum does, lest people forget: platinum prices did not stagnate the sales in 2009 or 2010.

Can other collectors see this or what?

This is the same story with ALL of the US Mint products – every time they experience success they FAIL subsequently because they alter the formula: low mintage, good product, at least 5 per hh limit, reasonable price = sell out quickly and actual value on 2ndary market later.
They failed with the 1st Spouse line because of the 100 squeaky wheels who called in to complain – so they killed the 2ndary market and then instead of a guaranteed sellout of 40,000 coins every time they struggle to sell 7,000 now (and have for years). HOW is this a good business decision anywhere?
They killed the Platinum coin line by increasing the mintages beyond demand.
They killed the 5 oz ATBs by increasing the mintages beyond demand (you NEVER increase a mintage on a sold out product! This devalues all subsequent releases and thereby annihilates the 2ndary market for it and therefore no one buys the coins anymore – this is not rocket science).
They killed the 2-coin American Eagle sets by increasing mintage to whatever they can sell in a month – this is ridiculous and will flame out in 1-3 years when people realize there is no real appreciation on their investment.

US MINT PEOPLE – IF YOU READ THIS PLEASE SAVE THE US MINT COIN PRODUCTS BY ADHERING TO THE WISDOM PRESENT IN THIS MESSAGE. THE 2ndary market is your friend!

To recap:
#1 NEVER increase a mintage in a line – once a product sells out, that is not a message to increase mintage, it is a message that your product is desirable and if anyone and everyone can obtain it then it is no longer rare and valuable.
#2 NEVER decrease household limit to less than 5 on a desirable item – best number is 10 (many collectors like to buy many multiples for GENERATIONS of family members) per household.
#3 NEVER announce the day a desirable product comes out – make it unannounced and people will watch for it on their own – make it like the 2006 AE 20th Anniversary sets where you did not tell people when it was coming out. #4 NEVER make a product available longer than whether or not it sells out (as in, don’t make a 30-day unlimited sales window) – these products will flame out soon enough and the line will be slain, just as you destroyed the First Spouse, Platinum Eagle and 5 oz ATB coin lines where you could have made many multiplied millions but settled to please the squeaky wheels and the spirit of greed so that you could make about 1/2 to 1/5 of what you could have made with every release.

To recap – in 2009 these debuted at the same price they are today in 2013; as I explained above, the problem has nothing to do with the price (it still soldout in 2010 at 1900 dollars for each of the 10,000 they sold in a sell out on the heels of the success of 2009), but rather the problem is the bloated greed-induced mintage.
It can never be said enough: DON’T MESS WITH SUCCESS; leave the mintage LOW – it creates sellouts!

I don’t know what makes you think the US Mint even cares about the secondary market. I don’t think you know what the Mint’s purpose is in selling proof coins – I don’t know myself and if the mint has a purpose or goal in mind they haven’t shared it with the public. Decrease the limit to 1 per household so that collectors have an opportunity to buy one coin anyway and dealers and secondary marketers can’t hog the all the sales for themselves. Always publish the issue date for a coin – it gives collectors the opportunity to budget and plan their purchases, not everybody is rich. Increase the mintage for a coin so that everybody has a chance to buy the coin from the mint instead of having to pay a premium charged by dealers or secondary marketers.
To recap – cater to the collector and not the dealer or secondary marketer.

The US Mint is not in the business of creating rarities. The collector products they sell is to satisfy collectors, not feed a profit motive.

Furthermore, you should be blaming all the complainers from the 25th ASE set, early FSQ releases, the 5oz ATB fiasco, etc, not the US Mint. If you ever complained to the mint because you couldn’t get a sold-out product, then you’ve contributed to the issue. From the mint’s point of view, they are only fulfilling the demands of the citizenry.

If you’re a collector, then you probably aren’t that concerned about aftermarket value if it’s just going into your PC anyway. If “what it’s worth” or flipping a product is your only concern, then you aren’t the target audience for the mint. I believe the model you’re looking for is the RCM or Perth. I’d suggest you look at their products…

If you were to buy just one example of each of the aforementioned numismatic items, you’d have an estimated bill of $6,994.95.

This figure fails to account for those of us who are eagerly anticipating the release of this year’s First Spouse gold coins. Even with today’s gold SPOT price ($1,319.20, as of 1:14 PM (EDT)), each of these coins ($865.00 for the Proof; $845.00 for the Uncirculated) will add an additional $8,550.00 to an already stretched budget, bringing about a new grand total of $15.554.95. (yikes)

The premiums that the U.S. Mint charges for its PM offerings are high. I would bet that if the U.S. Mint lowered their premium(s), it would translate to increase in overall sales.

My point was, yes, we like to buy coins from the Mint because they are pretty, but also because they are valuable; why would anyone pay $1,700 for a coin of gold or $140 for 2 ounces of silver if they don’t think it will increase in value over time?
Does anyone say, “I hope my coins decrease in value over time…” Of course not – you expect your coins to appreciate in value.

My point with the whole 4-points of success for the US Mint is to make sure their coins are worth something.

Consider this: most collectors will pass on their coins to their children. If their children check the values on these coins 50 years from now and they are worth the same if not less than what was paid for them, WHY would they EVER continue to buy coins from the US Mint? It would be stupidity.

Conversely, if the coins DO appreciate in value (via the 4 points of success I delineated above), then they will CONTINUE to buy more coins seeing the value in them.

The future of coin collecting is at stake my friends.

Like it or not, sellouts are what make the coins valuable. Thus a 2ndary market is necessary to cause that to happen, with the 4 conditions I mentioned above.

And no, I have never called to complain I couldn’t get a coin in time (the closest I came was when the Mint system “mysteriously” could not process an order from my super fast internet connection on the 25th AE collection; I asked why in 4.5 hours I could not place an order since even with greater demand for the 1st 3 coins of the 1st Spouse coins I got all my orders in within 45 minutes).

As an aside, I do believe that the large coin companies, such as gainsville coins or hill-whatever they’re called have some kind of technology to attach themselves to the Mint servers and block out others until their orders are placed, on top of the preference of having T3 lines or better to be able to get in ahead of lowly bandwidth customers.

So when I said the 25th AE set was in fierce competition my point for an unannounced release date was proven: if no one knows when it comes out then they cannot change their schedule to be able to camp out and prepare all their monster machinery to try a takeover of the Mint ordering system and crank out all their orders before everyone else can get theirs.
By keeping the release date a secret a la the 20th anniversary AE sets, the coins are available for longer because of the above explanation.
THUS, the Mint SHOULD keep their special sets a secret.

On top of all this, they ought also to make good products, like a SILVER PENNY! This would be part of an ALL-SILVER annual proof set (everything: dollar coins and penny and nickel). Make it available for under $100 and it would be the bestseller of the year.
Make the mintage a maximum of 500,000 but do not reveal the maximum mintage (stop it on a random number like 413,774), that way no one knows and then suddenly it sells out, contributing to great value later on.
This is just one of idea of many that would make the products at the Mint far more collectable.

And for all who would complain about a sellout – you had just as much chance as anyone to get it. It would be like complaining about the price of a stock going high after you didn’t buy it low and saying it isn’t fair.

And yes, your comment that their premiums are high is true – they have systemically raised prices across the board; anything from 300% on clad coins to 50% on the silver and gold coins. The price increases are ridiculous of course, and they have seen their sales fall as a result, and for a while they have tried to just keep raising prices to offset the lack of customers while offering nothing better on their products or justifying any kind of price increase from higher costs or something (even if they did go down this road we’re only talking a 10% increase at most for that).
Bottom line, until they bring the prices back down to Earth like they were in 2007 or so, they will continue to have people stay away from their products and their sales will continue to plummet, just as they have every single year since 2007.

The “purpose” of the mint retail products was/is for collectors. (hence the term numismatic coin products). That is the only reason they produce specialty coins at all. Increasing the number of items minted is to get more of the product to the collector that wanted to purchase a specific release is good business sense when viewed from the primary sellers perspective. Limiting production to drive up prices in the secondary market gains the mint nothing – if they cap and sell the same number each year. Selling to coin flippers shouldn’t be a primary concern to them.

Like others have noted, with no firm release dates for most of the mints products, they catch many trying to gather resources to purchase unexpected releases.

The WP set is a perfect example of greed in the secondary market, effectively defeating collectors. Most collectors had to wait weeks for the resellers orders to be exhausted before the collectors were getting the coins they ordered. My 1st day order of this set showed up here on Tuesday. Over a month after they started shipping these sets – because the resellers with inside connections and deep pockets of gluttony got there first. Plus the glut has diluted the market raising mintages and lowering value and turning many off to the mints products.

Agreed but they sure crank out a lot of bullion as well. 28 million plus silver AE’s so far this year for “collectors” and still going strong? Are you collecting one of these at that mintage? or speculating? I take solice in knowing there are a lot of upside down people here; doubling down I guess these days. Guess I just dont like the fact that the mint can sell a product that the so called ordinary person can not buy directly. And yes, just joking; I really meant “speculating” and not “collecting”. Seems to be driving this show.

Tim B – bullion coins aren’t really a collectors paradise. I am not even a fan of seeing them graded and sold at a premium… since at the end of the day they are bullion and millions are made as you point out.

The bullion coins were not initially issued for collectors but for investors.
The uncirculated bullion coins were issued to coincide with new laws allowing individuals to hold gold and silver bullion in their 401(k) retirement accounts.

These coins were initially issued for investors and retirement funds and it was not until Coin “Grading” that Bullion coins became visible to Collectors!

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US Mint Sales Report Sources

The US Mint provides CoinNews.netweekly sales figures for its collector coin products. It is these reports that are used as the source for our articles on the subject. The bureau on its website also publishes updated bullion coin sales every weekday. These US Mint sales are presented in our daily gold articles.